About RAFI

RAFI cultivates markets, policies, and communities that support thriving, socially just, and environmentally sound family farms.

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Sally Lee

About Sally Lee

Since October 2017, Sally Lee serves as RAFI’s first Associate Director. Sally completed a joint master in Agricultural Economics and International Rural Development, assessing farmer risk in American poultry production contracts while at the University of Humboldt in Berlin. She has a background in social justice, including working at RAFI previously for four years with the Agricultural Justice Project, a social justice certification program for farms and businesses. She also worked as the Social Justice Consultant for Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in contributing to the development of the Sustainability Assessments for Food and Agriculture Systems (SAFA) indicators.

RAFI-USA is pleased to welcome new Executive Director, Edna Rodriguez, and new Associate Director, Sally Lee. Former Executive Director Scott Marlow will be stepping into a new role as Sr. Policy Specialist. RAFI-USA is looking forward to growing our new team, hiring two new positions, Development Director and Communications Manager in 2018.

Today, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that it would terminate the Interim Final Farmer Fair Practice Rule that was set to go into effect October 19th. Farmers have been calling out to USDA for over a decade to hold big business in livestock industries accountable for unfair, deceptive, and abusive practices. This action today is a step in the wrong direction for rural America, siding with Big Meat and against farmers.

So far, 2017 has been a whirlwind year for our Contract Agriculture Reform Program. We held two premieres of our documentary film, Under Contract: Farmers and the Fine Print, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC and at Anthology Film Archives in New York City, and we later held screenings across the country that reached more than 500 people. We’re still riding that wave of initial success to expand our program and our impact.

RAFI brought 10 farmers to Capitol Hill to debut a preview version of our documentary that features their stories, Under Contract. Farmers also met with their legislators to demand fairness and urge their support of the Farmer Fair Practice Rules, aka GIPSA rules.

The Contract Farmer Organizer will conduct farmer outreach, build and maintain relationships with our farmer network, and collect research data along with contract farmers in livestock and other agricultural sectors.

Hurricane Matthew has flooded several chicken farms in eastern North Carolina and left many out of power. When disaster strikes like this, farmers face may find themselves facing loss or damage to their home, to their land and essential farm equipment, and a long road to recovery and rebuilding. On top of that, as the flood waters receded chicken and livestock farmers will face another dilemma - they may have lost entire flocks, which can be hundreds of thousands of birds. In these catastrophic loss situations, farmers’ contracts make it clear that even though the companies technically own the birds while they are alive, the farmers themselves have to take on the burden and risk of disposing of the dead bird carcasses in a timely and safe way.

On Monday Oct. 10, officials issued a Major Disaster Declaration for several counties in eastern North Carolina as a result of devastating flooding and damage from Hurricane Matthew. Farmers are facing serious crises - from flooded barns to lost crops. If your home and farm were affected by the hurricane, there are resources and federal programs to cover some of your costs. This guide will get you started. Sometimes it can be hard to navigate the different programs available. If you have questions call our offices and press “1” for the farmer hotline: 919-542-1396.